Fellow Saints Supporters...

[the emergency]

What i am about to say is a reflection of the annoyance of the season + last year's finals.
If you want to vehemently disagree with me, please, i laud you to do so, because i would love anyone to change my mind about these players who are getting a game in our great team.

Dawson - Brilliant last year, cant fault him from that, but has not fired at all this year. 5 below average games so far in 2010, where is the tipping point when the coaches say "okay, you're out of form, find some with the Zebs"? Remember when we dropped Dal Santo and Milne for a few years back? Dal Santo went from a player who didn't look like he was fitting into our team to a dead-set star, and it only took one game! There comes a time when bad form leads to being dropped.

Clarke - I may just be jumping on the "Blame Raph" bandwagon, but I attended the Freo game, and watched the Port game intently on TV, and out of the 2 games, the best and only thing i saw him do which really made me say "Wow!" was his run through the centre of the ground to set up Milne's 4th goal against Freo.

Kosi - I wont get too annoyed about him yet, as it was his first game back from suspension, and it is a little early to judge, but geez, without Riewoldt, it his is golden ticket to absolutely tear it up, prove the doubters wrong and stamp his name with the game's elite forwards. Judging only from the Port game, not only was he completely ineffective to the point that he was put in the ruck, but his laconic effort in contests were excruciating.

As i said, please change my mind about these 3... I'm just at a loss at what they are providing to the team as a whole, although i will probably make an exception when it comes to Kosi as i don't believe you should judge a player on the back of one bad game, we just need him to perform more than ever in the in the absence of our great leader.

From the Port game, i am not pinning the loss on one player, i think the gameplan didnt work, our structure didnt work, we missed the run and carry of Gram and Ray and underutilised Goddard in the forward line. The Dawson and Raph observations are from at least 5 & 2 rounds of footy respectively, and the Kosi one because he had such a poor preseason and was unimpressive against the Swans, as well as ineffective against Port. I don't believe in scapegoating, if we lose, we lose as a team, not pin it on one player.

So, fellow Sainters, please tell me what Clarke and Dawson are currently providing to our team, and if i have written anything about any of the players which you disagree with, don't be afraid to call me up on it and prove me wrong, i welcome you to with open arms.

 

[Murraj1966]

I still have hope for Dawson, he's got the skill, just needs to use it.

Clarke is a lost soul, I don't care how many people defend him and call me disloyal or claim I'm using him as a scapegoat, I don't care how what anyone else says, but he's a hack. Deadset spud of the highest order, we got rid of the Goose and X Clarke, and kept HIM. I sigh when I see him in the squad.

Kosi was not suited to the conditions at AAMI, and will thrive in tall marking forward conditions without Riewoldt there taking all the glory, still has many opportunities to play well and I believe he will.

 

[StFly]

There can be no corelation with dropping Dal or Milne and dropping Dawson merely on the fact that Dawson is a KP, Dal and Milne are not.

Structures revolve around the spine of any club when you see a spine and you think "that's pretty damned impressive" you then build around that and when you think that our line generally is;

Dawson - Fisher/Gilbert - Hayes - Riewoldt - Koschitzke

You're happy, you're content because they all can do their job and can do it well, as we're seeing with Rooey though, you take one out and things go to massive shit.

Kosi & Rooey can dish off or can give opportunities to Milne, likewise they could Schneider, Mini, Gwilt or any other player in the forward half but they will generally be the target, replace the target and as we're seeing you run into massive problems with the replacement not being as good as who they are replacing from the get go, which is needed. Dawson gets dropped and what happens?

We look for a viable replacement for Rooey, we look for a viable replacement for Cougar, we shatter any remnant of a structured spine when it was structure that failed us against Port. Think about it for a moment, Cougar at the end of last year was stated as being violently ill and almost replaced from the GF, yes he got through the game but you'd have to assume he did so on medication, this would then hinder his recovery and a guy with a slight frame would then crash back down if he's vomitting. Since we made the GF it was alater start to trainign and thus less chance to get right and put on the weight that he lost. The time to drop him, if there is anything of the sort, is about 7 rounds prematurely at this stage, when we've found a replacement for Rooey.

Raph, the perennial whipping boy that he is, is also a cnfidence player, he had better disposal on the night then 90% of the team and merely because he's "unimpressive" in his methodology people assume he's worthless. He was serviceable against Port at the very worst, to drop him base don his output thus far is sheer stupidity, of course, he is not in the upper tier of the club, never was and probably won't attain such status, but is doing your job such a damned horrible things these days?

Kosi, Kosi needs to work on his lateral movements me thinks, straight ahead he can be bloody damaging but laterally he falls down tremendously, to early to judge as you are only taking 1 game as the 2nd was not suited and he brought it to ground more often than not, just didn't clunk a couple grabs he probably would on a good day.

 

[karmafree]

I would like to know what Lyons "game plan " was for the night, but obviously never will. From that we would know what he was trying to get from the players. I have a problem in the sense I am looking for ALL our players to be of premiership standard (look at the Cats). You have the old cliche of "a champion team will always beat a team of champions". This doesn't apply at the current AFL level any more, its so good and even (look at the dee's) and of a high standard, that the industry is always quoting you have to improve 10-15 % each year just to stay level. With this in mind my comments would be. If a player hasn't at least improved by that level and is not a key position player,who are bloody hard to get, lets look at someone else , until we find one . It is the midsized players that really have to constantly be on this measurable improvement path. Eddy, Geary, Dempster, McQualter, Clarke, Peake, Those that have gone to the next level are our "premiership" type players. Jones, Ray, Gilbert, Armitage, Gwilt to fit in with our established "champions". Maybe we don't have them, maybe we do. But we certainly know where a few of our maligned players are at.
Clarke so many chances, we know what he can do, his biggest problem is putting his mates under pressure with his disposal. Can't possibly agree with his efficiency rate that has been quoted.
McQualter improved beyond the 15% last year so deserves his chance to stay in, but has he gone to the next level this year?
Kosi, you just can't drop him. He is a KPP, has to be taken by the best defender and the risk reward factors with him are too great to leave him out. If he does nothing he is still doing something, and if he does something, well we are all happy little campers.
Dawson, I agree with Fly on him.
Gwilt, I am just waiting for him to be BOG, he is the one right now who has to stand up amongst all our players and announce himself that I am the one. I hope Lyon can let him free for us to see what he really can do as a go to man.
Anyway just a few thoughts, I love the Saints and am predicting a big win over the Doggies with who ever is picked.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

To me the problem is, if we are going to have forwards ( sometimes I'm not sure when I look at the field and they are all behind the centre line ) then those forwards need to kick a couple.
No goals to Kosi or Goddard!
The reason so many posters here are keen to play Stanley is that he demonstrated during the NAB cup that he can demand the ball and get a result. So we know he can get some sort of result although its pretty much recognised that he will be limited.
There may be better options we havent seen.

 

[krusden]

i wouldn't base any decisions on players by including the port game.

If i did, i'd drop the WHOLE team with the exception of lenny, bakes and schneids.

that said, dawson looks a little lost so far this season and probably needs a bit of intense work this week.

 

[Look2Me4Guidance]

Interesting time for this thread to be brought up.

Dawson - For mine played his best game on Saturday night of the season. Tredrea kicked 2 goals. 1 goal was from a ridiculous free kick that was an incorrect decision and his 2nd was running into an open goal after a turnover. I can't criticise him for his brief stint on Ebert, because that's a horrible matchup. Dawson was spoiling well and getting involved at ground level. His disposal still needs work, but he's a confidence player and his last 2 runs have been better than his first 3.

Clarke - Again he was a contributor on Saturday night. As stated earlier, he was one of a few few capable of hitting a target by foot (Eddy also impressed with his improvement in this area) He is prepared to play on and move the ball quickly which was needed. Having him in allows Goddard to be released further forward.

Kosi - Horrible game to return in. Did some nice work on the lead and I felt had he nailed that set shot, he'd be off and going. His timing on leaping at overhead marks is off, so hopefully he can find it. We'll certainly need it this week.

 

[AFaiL]

Sure, raph can hit a target most times, but his fumbling and hospital handballs/kicks are horrifying. They hit the target. It's just not eh right target to be passing to